


And He Chose His Name as Marius

by Alienea, octovoid128



Series: The Inherent Romanticism of Dragons [10]
Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Blood, Implied past transphobia, It is gender transing time folks, Magical Gender Affirming Surgery, Marius was having a Bad Time but Raph is good to him, Very mild body horror, because magic gender surgery is wild actually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25872019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alienea/pseuds/Alienea, https://archiveofourown.org/users/octovoid128/pseuds/octovoid128
Summary: It's the wee hours of the morning when a young man knocks on Raphaella's door, covered in blood and looking very out of sorts.Marius has just escaped his former home, and is ready to make some major changes.
Relationships: Raphaella la Cognizi & Marius von Raum
Series: The Inherent Romanticism of Dragons [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1832185
Comments: 11
Kudos: 117





	And He Chose His Name as Marius

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place pretty much right after Flows Just as Free.  
> Raph uses They/Them pronouns for Marius until he lets her know he's a man because she is used to not assuming people's genders as the resident Gender Witch.

The sun is just beginning to lighten the sky when Raphaella gets a knock at the door of the house she’s staying in for the duration. Outside is… someone. Their hair appears to have been shorn choppily short, the remaining curls tangled and littered with detritus. The dress they’re wearing is torn to shreds and spattered with blood. They’re pale and shaking and their hands are bandaged with rags that were obviously torn from their skirt. 

Marius doesn’t know what to say, now that he’s here. This is what he’s wanted, what he’d been hoping for for  _ years _ . But finally being here, he doesn’t know how to open his mouth and  _ spit it out _ . There is only a few seconds of silence, though, as the witch opens the door further and beckons him in with a wing.

“Hi there.” It’s pretty obvious that this poor kid is in distress. They look maybe sixteen or seventeen. Definitely far too young to be roaming around the forest in bloody clothes. 

“...Hi.” Marius manages to get out as he limps into the house, wincing at the pain from his injured ankle.

“Did you come here for me specifically or did you just happen to stumble across a house in the forest?” Raphaella decides that’s a good place to start. Best to find out what they’re looking for without going too deep into specifics. She helps them sit in a chair and has them prop their leg up so she can look at it.

“You specifically.” Marius is grateful for the multiple choice question. It helps him find his voice a little more. “I’m… I don’t want to be a girl. I heard that you… might be able to help...”

Raphaella nods and gently wraps the injured ankle as she listens. She’s heard similar stories before, and it’s part of why she’s so open about what she does. 

“Well, not wanting to be a girl is a major symptom of not being a girl! So, what are you instead?”

Marius opens his mouth to answer, but finds nothing but a lump in his throat. No one has ever asked him anything like that before. He tries again but the only noise he succeeds in making is a sob, and suddenly tears are flowing down his face.

Given how often she does stuff like this as the Gender Witch™, one might think Raphaella would be better at dealing with the emotions that come with it, but she still feels flustered by seeing this poor kid burst into tears. She gives an awkward pat on the shoulder and then flits about the kitchen to prepare a mug of hot cocoa, hoping it’ll bring some color to their cheeks and make them stop looking like some sort of weird ghost. Everyone generally enjoys getting a little taste of chocolate anyways, so it’s a good distraction.

By the time she puts the cocoa in front of them, they’ve reined themself in a little, wiping at their still-watering eyes with their bandaged hands. Their breath is still coming in small shaking sobs, but they continue to take deep breaths to calm themself.

“S-sorry, sorry, I… tonight has been a bad night.” He wraps both hands around the mug of cocoa and stares into it, trying not to burst into tears again. He’s never had cocoa before. It smells so good…

“No need to apologize. I could. Sort of tell.” She doesn’t specifically reference the blood but that’s mostly what she means. Luckily, most of it seems to not be theirs! Well, she hopes luckily. You never know, in these situations, but it’s usually luckily.

“Yeah…” Marius finally manages to find the strength to bring the mug to his lips. He almost starts crying again at the wonderful taste and the warmth that spreads through him. “I… I think I’m a man.” He manages to choke out instead of breaking down.

“Well, then you are.” Raph says simply, with a soft smile.

Marius loses what little composure he’s regained and starts crying again. Raphaella gives him another slightly awkward pat and offers him a handkerchief, which he accepts gratefully. It takes a little longer for him to calm down this time, but eventually he does with another mumbled apology.

“No need to apologize.” Raphaella waves her wing at him. “You’re fine. Whenever you’re ready, tell me what you want me to do for you a little more specifically?”

Marius mulls it over for a second, suddenly faced with the realization that he really hadn’t thought this far ahead. All he’d been thinking about was getting  _ away _ from his father and getting  _ here _ . He hadn’t thought of much beyond that. Moreover, he has no idea how to refer to any of the things he wants changed in a way that isn’t extremely impolite. He flushes a little as his silence draws on for longer than he really cares for.

Raphaella  _ had _ wanted to see him with a little more color in his cheeks, but this isn’t exactly what she had in mind. Still, this is all fairly usual. Faced with the reality of her skills, people often get a bit embarrassed and uncertain. Luckily, this town stocked her with some clothing, so she can start small.

“Take your time! How about we start with clothes? I almost definitely have something that will fit you, in whatever style you want.”

Marius manages to stop himself from crying again, but it’s a near thing. He definitely wants to get out of this dress. He avoids looking down at himself. He doesn’t want to think too hard about the blood and his bruised knuckles. He takes a deep breath and nods. “Please.”

Raphaella helps him up and lets him lean against her as they head towards the closet.

Marius doesn’t put too much thought into choosing his outfit, just grabbing a pair of trousers that look about the right size and a slightly oversized shirt. Raphaella helps him out of the dress, respectfully averting her eyes as he emerges from the layers of fabric.

He quickly pulls on the trousers and shirt, fastening both tightly. Raphaella can immediately tell that he feels far more comfortable in these clothes, as the set of his shoulders relaxes a little.

“Thank you. Um… Could you burn that?”

“Sure.” It was unlikely to be useful to anyone else anyways, given how bloody and tattered it was. She carefully sets it in the fireplace to deal with later.

Marius takes another while to consider exactly what he wants from her, though he still feels like he doesn’t quite have the words.

“So, um… Well. I definitely want… these gone.” He gestures vaguely at his chest, flushing a little red again. “And…” He spreads his hand low on his stomach. “All of this equipment here. Won’t be needing any of that! Want to keep my, uh…” He gestures further downwards, feeling very awkward. “Y’know… uh. And then uh… like I’d like to have a deeper voice and like, facial hair and stuff.” He’s very flustered as he does his best to describe exactly what he has in mind without using the rude terms for things.

Raphaella nods. “I’m pretty sure I understand what you’re aiming for, but here.” She hands him a handwritten pamphlet that explains the more medical anatomy terms. “I think this might help you be a little more specific so that I don’t do anything you don’t want.” She likes being specific. She can undo stuff later, but getting stuff right the first time is important.

Marius accepts the pamphlet and repeats his requests with the more specific terms. Raphaella nods. 

“Alright! I can definitely do all of that for you. You’ve got two options for how I do- some people like to be awake during the process, and some people would really rather just sleep through it. You get the same final effect either way, of course.” She’s already preparing in her head for what to do. Removing breasts and uterus, magically nudging his body to accept that it’s male- ah, she needs to warn him about second puberty. “Either way, you will experience a sort of second puberty as your body realizes that it’s getting the signals to give you facial hair and a deeper voice and, well, all.”

Marius nods. “I’m okay with that. Second puberty that will eventually end in exchange for being more comfortable in the body I’m stuck in for presumably the rest of my life barring getting, like, cursed or something? I’ll take that trade any day. Oh.” His face falls a little bit and he fiddles with the hem of his shirt uncomfortably. “I, uh… I don’t have any money or anything to offer.” His voice is barely above a whisper, ashamed that he didn’t think about this before he got his hopes up.

Raphaella shrugs. “Pay me when you can. I’m not hard to find if you’re looking. That’s how you found me to begin with, isn’t it?” She smiles. “I don’t charge interest, either. Don’t worry too much about that. Do you want to be asleep or awake?” She repeats the question in case he 

Marius takes a shaky breath as he is Once Again trying not to cry. “Um… A-asleep, I think. I don’t think I want to know what you’re doing.”

Raphaella nods. “Alright.” She claps her hands. “Let’s get started then, if you’re ready.”

Marius nods, feeling resolute and, for the first time in a long time,  _ hopeful _ . “Thank you.”

Raphaella smiles warmly and helps him get settled on the couch so he’s comfy when he wakes up. Then she gets to work.

She’s been doing this for a while, now, so it’s not hard to coax flesh to give up parts of itself and store those parts away for someone that will want them, and smooth everything over. She doesn’t leave signs that a change has happened, although she used to, when she was starting out. She’s still got a scar on her own stomach. Coaxing the body into producing the bits that tell it to make facial hair, lower a voice, all of the myriad of differences that she’s noted, is a bit harder. Mostly because it really is different for every person, figuring out how their bodies would be and coaxing them to make that happen. Still, she gets it done, reinforces all of her changes, and then goes in to heal his wounds. It’s not much more effort, she’ll tell him, if he worries about the bill. Besides, she’s not sure she really expects to ever get paid, but it’ll give him a reason to keep going.

She packs a small bag for him. Some food that will keep, and an extra change of clothing, and a waterskin. She even digs around and finds a good flint and tinder set, and slips some money in in the very bottom. He’ll get as much of a start in his life as she can give him.

When Marius’s eyes flutter open, it takes him a moment to remember where he is. He’s a little disoriented, but honestly less panicked than he would be if he had woken up at home. He sits up and rubs at his eyes as he slowly remembers what is going on. Then it all comes back at once and his hands fly to his chest. Flat. It’s  _ flat! _

He’s hungry, and a bit dizzier than can be accounted for by that or by waking up in a new place, but other than that, there don’t appear to be any side effects from what Raphaella did.

He jumps to his feet in excitement, and then remembers that his ankle is supposed to be sprained and flinches, expecting pain. It doesn’t come. He flexes his foot a little to make sure this isn’t a fluke, and then puts his weight on it properly. It doesn’t hurt at all, and neither do his knuckles, or the cuts on his hands from the shard of glass he used to shear off his hair. Ah. She must have fixed those too.

He looks around and finds her at the kitchen stove, cooking something that probably wouldn’t smell as exquisite to him if he wasn’t so hungry. She smiles at him as he braces himself against the counter to combat the vertigo he’s currently experiencing.

“Good morning!” She serves him up some of the food, since she knows by now the side effects of her own magic. “You might want to sit back down for the time being. You’ll probably be dizzy for a while yet. The hunger we can do something about though.”

Marius accepts the food gratefully and digs in.

“You’ll probably get hungry more often now. That’s just part of the hormonal change, not a weird magical side effect.” She explains some of the other changes he can expect to go through as he eats.

Marius nods and asks a couple questions, which Raph is happy to answer.

He finishes the food and Raph gives him another serving, which he finishes just as quickly as the first helping. He accepts a third serving and his stomach finally stops feeling quite like a bottomless pit, and the dizziness begins to subside.

“Thank you. For everything. You definitely didn’t need to do all of this for me, especially since I don’t have anything to offer you in return…”

Raph waves her hand. “Don’t mention it. Just. Get out there. Live your life, dude!”

He offers her a shy but genuine smile. Raphaella gives him yet another slightly awkward pat on the shoulder and hands him the pack she prepared for him. “This has some extra clothes and stuff you’ll need to keep traveling. I’m. Assuming you’re wanting to keep traveling.”

Marius winces a little, thinking about the state he was in when he arrived and the ashes of the dress in the fireplace. “Yeah. Thank you.”

“One more thing. I don’t think I actually asked you your name.”

“Oh, uh…” Marius looks a little uncomfortable.

“It’s okay if you haven’t chosen one yet!” She holds up her hands. “Just, I try to remember people’s names. Try. Being. The operative word there. I’m not always the best at that. But I will try!”

“Oh. You mean. Of course.” He’s a little embarrassed that he thought she was asking for his Given name. 

“I’m Raphaella, by the way.” She gains enough of a braincell to remember she should probably introduce herself as well. Frankly, most of the time she just gets called Oh That Witch anyways, but he seems like he might want to know.

“My name is Marius.” He’s a little surprised at how confident he feels saying it. He smiles wide and repeats it, unable to stop himself from laughing a little as he does.

Raphaella can’t help but smile as well. “Nice to meet you, Marius.”

“Nice to meet you too. Thank you. Thank you so much. I promise I’ll repay you. I just… need a job or. Something. I’ll figure it out!” He shoulders the backpack, feeling like a weight has been lifted off his chest. Well, technically a literal weight  _ has _ been lifted from his chest. He laughs a little at his own joke.

Raphaella sees him off with a smile and a wave, expecting to never see him again.

**Author's Note:**

> Marius von Raum Deserves Nice things  
> Thank you for reading


End file.
